Negative Effects of Consumerism

Consumerism is damaging to our society, in our North American society consumerism is often portrayed to be a negative aspect of people’s lives. However, one can also argue positive effects that result from consumerism, or emphasize on the negative effects of consumerism and how it can be a constraining force in one’s own life. Consumerism is an idea of an economic policy that the market is shaped by the choice of the consumer and continues to emerge to shape the world’s mass markets. Some of the negative effects of consumerism that many critics may argue and that will be further emphasized on are the overexploitation of consumerism which has lead to economic poverty, and increase in debts by continuingly increasing already high consumption levels at the expense of less developed or poorer nations. Additionally, environmentalists blame consumerism for the resulting damage it has done to the environment through consumption and wastage of products, as a result cause pollution, land contamination, and forest degradation. Lastly will look upon the effect consumerism can have upon one’s own personal life and how It can result in a pursuit to fulfill the infinite desires of “self”, thus forgetting once moral values and the inability to distinguish right from wrong. Generally, consumerism has emerged through a historical process that has created a capitalist society. That is shaped by mass markets and cultural attitudes, which ensure an ever-growing consumption. Consumerism is the general assumption that human desires are infinitely expandable, and everyday companies around the world compete by trying to satisfy those consumers’ needs and desires. In most countries, consumerism mainly increased due to the industrial revolution, which led to the development of luxury products that have become status symbols, generally these products tend to go out of fashion or become undesirable within society thus they turn to...